The more optimistic program followers base much of their five, six and seven win projections on confidence about Kill and his staff.  The coaches have a national reputation for teaching excellence, and improved fundamentals by the players and overall better program administration including training and conditioning will make a difference this fall.

So, too, will effort by the players.  Expect the Gophers to play hard and be a united group.  The mental approach could produce a surprise win or two.

But Kill has delivered the message that it won’t be a “quick fix” turning this program around.  That can be interpreted as code for saying better players must be recruited and put into his system.  That takes time.

Go ahead and document a Sports Headliners prediction of a 4-8 season.  For his part, Kill isn’t about to go on the public record with specific numbers.

Asked recently how he will define a successful season, he answered: “Get better everyday. We’re starting from the ground up. …”

Kill said before August training camp opened that months of hard work, including spring practice, produced encouraging results.  “I would tell you right now, we’re better than what we were when we came in, and that’s a credit to the kids, not me, and the other people around the program,” he said.

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Former Gopher Mike Sherels said if the Vikings retain six or seven cornerbacks on their roster his brother and former U teammate Marcus will for sure make the team.   Marcus is also trying to win the punt returner job.

Gophers radio broadcasts on KFAN will include two voices heard when WCCO was broadcasting the games.  Mike Grimm, who last year was a studio host, will do the play-by-play.  Analyst Darrell Thompson, who used to work with Dave Lee and Dave Mona, will assist Grimm.  Justin Gaard will be the sideline reporter, Kevin Falness will host the pre-game show, and Corbu Stathes will host halftime and post-game shows and provide scoreboard updates.

Ex-major league catcher Chris Coste, a Fargo native, is playing for the Moorhead Brewers and hitting .283, according to the team website.

Former Gophers hockey coach Doug Woog is the 2011 recipient of the Minnesota Minute Men’s Courage Award. The award will be presented to Woog during a luncheon at Mancini’s Char House on September 9. The Courage Award has been presented by the Minute Men since 1979 to individuals for their outstanding service to the community.  Woog has more wins than any coach in Gophers history, with a 389-187-40 record.  He now trains athletes and is a Fox Sports North hockey analyst.

Phil Esten, head coach of men’s cross country at UW-La Crosse from 1970-1998, will be inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame in San Antonio on December 14.  His son Phil is a former Gophers associate athletics director and now heads the University of Minnesota’s Alumni Association.  The older Esten was named the NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1996 when he led UW-La Crosse to the NCAA Division III cross country national title.  His teams also finished second at the national meet eight times during his career.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed to report that Marcus Marshall (St. Paul Johnson) has officially committed to Missouri State.

Wonder if Dennis Rodman (inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame last week) is the first player ever enshrined who once wore a wedding dress?

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How could the memories not filter through Ron Stolski’s mind today?

The Brainerd High School football coach will pass out equipment to his 2011 team in preparation for Monday’s start of conditioning drills.  Today is also Stolski’s 72^nd birthday and the start of his 50^th season coaching high school football.

The self-described “Polack” from north Minneapolis has won 330 games, more than any Minnesota prep coach ever.  Someone might guess that he would smother his players with ego, praising his own accomplishments.  But that’s not Stolski.

What Stolski will emphasize with this year’s players is something he’s been asking his teams for awhile now: “What will you settle for? How will you be remembered?”

He will tell them to accept only a “best effort, and the score will take care of it self.”  With his teams, that’s usually a winning result.

Three of the last four years the Warriors have made it to the semi-finals of 5A, the big school class usually dominated by suburban or city behemoths like Eden Prairie, Wayzata and Cretin-Derham Hall.  Brainerd, a school that sits in the lake country of central Minnesota, even beat mighty Eden Prairie with a 93-yard drive last year in the playoffs.

The Warriors finished 11-1 and Stolski’s record sat at 330-148-5.  He’s still looking for that first state title after 49 seasons, but whether he wins one or not, the victories are sure to pile up for awhile longer.

What do the record and all those wins mean to him?  “It means I’ve been coaching for a long time,” he said. “That’s all it means to me, to be very honest.  We tried hard and learned a lot along the way.  Good staff and people.”

Stolski never expected to win so many games.  “The thing I am proud of is the 330 has been accomplished at five different schools,” he said.  “You look at most other (win) leaders and it’s been at one or two schools.”

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